“We don’t want you to forget everything that’s happened and everything that’s continued to happen,” Good, 39, tells PEOPLE. “We’re not moving on. We have an active role that each and every one of us has to play in this time of history. What are we supposed to be doing to force the hands of change and to make sure people are constantly activated on how we continue to do better?”
Ron McPherson
The young emerging artist admits she was starstruck when producer Riley Urick notified her that Good would be directing the video. Diarra, 20, says that she is still in excited disbelief that she got a chance to collaborate with one of her idols.
Good says she’s close friends with Urick and got involved with the project after he posted on Instagram that he was producing Diarra’s latest single and needed a director for the video. She texted Urick about wanting to help out and after hearing the impassioned track, she was determined to work with the singer.
“I just fell in love with it immediately and to this voice,” says Good. “And I was just like, ‘Wow, this is incredible and so I came up with a concept and submitted it. [Diarra] came back and she was like, ‘Here’s some ideas I have’ and both of us kind of just started spitballing on what we thought that it should be. This is what came out of it.”
The video is filled with cutting visuals that create a fusion of both Diarra’s heritage, with scenes of her in stunning Senegalese attire, and Black American history, with depictions of icons like Shirley Chisholm, the first Black woman to run for president, as well as members of the Black Panther Party.
“We also wanted [the video] to culturally represent her,” Good explains. “We wanted to come out with a loud bang, and be specific about what’s important to her. But we also wanted to leave it up to you to determine how you feel about the video and what you’ve got from it without necessarily telling you fully.”
Aside from fun, animated costumes, the video has serious and emotional portrayals of real-life instances of police brutality and hate crimes. Diarra shares that acting through those scenes in the video were incredibly difficult.
The conclusion of the video contains brief and censored clips of the terrifying moments in whichBreonna TaylorandAhmaud Arberywere murdered at the hands of police and white supremacists. Good says it was a delicate act of balancing sensitivity and necessary urgency when handling the depictions in the video.
Meagan Good; Diarra.Cécile Boko; Ron McPherson
“We were sensitive about it,” says Good. “We don’t want it to be harsh, but we also want it to be honest; we don’t want to shy away from it. We also want it to be something where you realize the saddest part of this all is it’s not just these situations, these things continue to happen.”
While the video contains harsh realities and images of racial injustice in America, both Good and Diarra share that they also want “Set Free” to be an uplifting gift for Black viewers.
As Diarra continues to establish herself as a solo artist, she plans to release her first solo EP later this year. The blooming star hopes that Black women can continue to be represented in media and that other Black women, like Meagan Good, are opening doors for young women like her.
source: people.com
